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Thursday, 9 October 2008

Low-tech - Pipilotti Rist Interview -

Rist:
"A lot of people think that I work with more complicated machines than I do, when in fact I work in a very low-tech way that is much more interesting. For example, in the footage of the flying body parts, the hands and feet, people think this is computer animated. It's not true. I did it in my apartment near a window. I put black fabric over things, and wore black clothes (except for those areas of my body), and I lay down and moved my limbs around with the camera twisting in my hand. So it was just sunlight, black fabric, and a consumer camera. I didn't even use a studio light. Then on the computer, of course, I had to correct for different tones of blacks. I also work with surveillance cameras, the small ones. In the projected images here behind the orange sofa, for example, of a woman's reflection on a house, the camera sweeps across the outside of the house. It looks as if I had used a hundred thousand dollar machine. But it's just a long aluminum stick with a "thumb" attached to it, one of those mic rophones. With that I can get extremely dynamic movements if I work with a wide angle, but again it's very low tech. That's the production side. The other side is the installation. For me, it's very important that things looks simple. But the simpler it looks, the more work it is, like figuring out how to hang the projectors.(...)."

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About Me

Céline Siani Djiakoua is a visual artist, art facilitator, teacher, performer and jewellery maker. She was born in Nantes, France. She first studied Psychology (MA) and had a personal interest and experience in Psychoanalysis. She trained and worked as a schoolteacher and was going to become a psychologist when she moved to the U.K. in 2001. Since then she has followed her passion for Fine Art, graduating from Staffordshire University in June 2009. She is now based in Nottingham and has a studio at Surface Gallery. Céline Siani Djiakoua’s work is multidisciplinary, involving photography, video, drawing, animation, performance and installations. Her practice is profoundly influenced by her bodily experience as a previous dancer. Her work is informed by her interests in Jungian and Freudian/Lacanian theories, Phenomenology, Feminism, Cross Cultural Communication and Interculturalism.